Summertime is Thailand's rainy season, when Bangkok and other cities can experience powerful storms. In past years, downpours have produced enough rainfall to completely flood city streets, overwhelm drainage systems, and inundate homes.

Making matters worse for Bangkok, the city is sinking at a rate of more than one centimeter a year and could be below sea level by 2030.

To help prevent future flooding, the city and local organizations have recently embarked on several projects, including mapping out an extensive water-management plan this past June.

One of the larger anti-flooding projects is Chulalongkorn University Centenary Park, an 11-acre green space that can hold up to a million gallons of rainwater. As TED notes, Bangkok-based landscape architecture firm Landprocess designed the park to address flooding in its surrounding neighborhoods.

Here's how it works.

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Known informally as the CU Park, the project was built on $700 million worth of land near central Bangkok in 2017.

An aerial view of CU Park in Bangkok, Thailand.
Landprocess

Landprocess Founder Kotchakorn Voraakhom, who grew up in Bangkok, led the design plans. The park sits on the campus of Chulalongkorn University, which commissioned the project.

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The park features several characteristics that help it retain and redirect floodwater that would otherwise flow into city streets.

CU Park in Bangkok, Thailand.
Landprocess

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One side of the park sits at an incline that helps funnel water into a giant container.